A medical staff vote of “no confidence” in Cheyenne Regional Medical Center CEO Tim Thornell triggered a Board of Trustees investigation into claims of mismanagement and safety lapses at the hospital.
After trustees interviewed or met with “dozens” of current and former hospital employees, they gave Thornell a unanimous vote of “full confidence,” according to a Board of Trustees’ statement Cowboy State Daily obtained Thursday.
But the months since have done little to quell the internal strife inside the Level 3 trauma center that has won accolades for being high performing in U.S. News and other rankings, according to current and former doctors. The issues stretch across departments including life-or-death units such as the hospital’s cardiac catheter lab, one former surgeon said.
Dr. Steven Beer, a neurosurgeon at Cheyenne Regional, said problems include ethical concerns, “broken financial promises,” unsafe practices and repeated instances where patient care was compromised by unqualified staff.
Concerns were ignored or met with retaliation, he said.
“The medical staff has overwhelmingly lost confidence in the hospital’s leadership due to serious and ongoing systemic failures,” Beer said. “What we’re dealing with is a culture that values control over collaboration, and financial optics over clinical integrity. The medical staff believes it’s time for fundamental change and greater physician input in how this hospital is run.”
A ‘Vocal Minority’
Pete Obermueller, president of the Cheyenne Regional Medical Center Board of Trustees, disputed that there are any systemic problems and told Cowboy State Daily that the complaints were raised by a “vocal minority.”
He said most of the nurses and doctors at CRMC support Thornell.
“One of the consistent themes in our interviews with staff and physicians and nurses all across the hospital system was that Tim Thornell is the best CEO Cheyenne Regional has had in a long, long time.”
Among the doctors leaving is Dr. Steven Burgess, one of the hospital’s in-patient doctors, who is in the process of moving to Texas, where he will work for Texas Tech University’s health system.
After more than six years at Cheyenne Regional, Burgess said conditions at the hospital have grown so toxic that most of the doctors who make rounds like him have left since last year or are in the process of leaving.
“Horrible,” is how Burgess described the staffing issues. While working a recent shift, he said he met with a patient more than two hours after his 12-hour shift was supposed to end. That was followed up by a couple of hours of paperwork.
He said the hospital has contracted out the management of doctors and are funding fewer positions than in previous years.
“That in my opinion is creating a patient safety issue,” Burgess said.
‘Revolving Door’
Damon Kennedy, a cardiac surgeon who worked at Cheyenne Regional for nearly nine years until he left last year to take a position in Jonesboro, Arkansas, said he grew tired of “ethical” issues at CRMC.
Problems in the hospital’s cardiac cath lab went uncorrected, and complications, he said, were sometimes hidden from patients or they were given “half the story.”
The cath lab, Kennedy said, was briefly shut down a few years ago to try and resolve issues, but they continued. Kennedy said he reported them repeatedly, even all the way up to Thornell.
“I left for a lack of ethics and a lack of accountability,” he said. “I took all those concerns to the powers that be at the time and that did include him.”
The conditions created a “revolving door” of doctors in departments like neurosurgery and cardiology, where at least 15 providers left during his tenure, he said.
“You’ve got unethical things going on,” Kennedy added. “They’re not telling families the real truth, and after nine years and various statements like (the hospital was improving) patient advocacy, patient satisfaction … I would argue that zero was ever actually addressed about it.”
‘Culture Of Distrust’
According to the no-confidence resolution, which medical staff voted on in December, hospital workers said Thornell’s lack of “decisive action” has exacerbated staffing shortages, lack of training, poor retention and recruitment and “repeated failures” in following policies and procedures that “jeopardize patient safety and care.”
“The CEO has fostered a culture of fear and intimidation within the medical staff, discouraging them from voicing concerns or reporting critical issues out of fear of retaliation, thereby obstructing transparency and the resolution of systemic problems,” according to a copy of the staff resolution obtained by Cowboy State Daily.
Staff members claim they’ve raised concerns repeatedly in-house that go unaddressed, leading to “exacerbated staff burnout” and a “culture of distrust and low morale among health providers.”
Cheyenne Regional Medical Center staffs nearly 170 physicians and 1,850 employees. The hospital has more than 220 beds, second most in the state. The hospital is owned by Laramie County.
Thornell has led the hospital system since April 2019. He has more than 25 years of experience in health care leadership positions, according to a hospital statement.
Before arriving in Cheyenne, he had been the chief executive of the 113-bed Lea Regional Medical Center and Medical Group in Hobbs, New Mexico, a position he had held for seven years. He was chosen after a nationwide search that drew 91 applicants.
Cheyenne Regional Medical Center responded to a request to speak to Thornell on Thursday with a page-long statement.
‘Accountability Remains A Core Value’
“Although we generally refrain from responding to public commentary, in this case, where individuals’ character has been misrepresented and the integrity of our entire organization is being unfairly questioned, we believe it's important to speak up,” hospital spokesperson Hillary Hardy wrote. “We remain confident in the great work we're doing and will continue to focus on serving with excellence, while making hard decisions that are needed for us to continue to serve our community.”
Hospital officials said the contractor responsible for managing the hospitalists, which are the in-hospital doctors who make rounds, have given physicians more flexibility in their work schedules, hoping to address some staffing frustrations.
What’s clear, Cheyenne Regional officials said, is that they believe Thornell’s leadership carried Cheyenne Regional through the pandemic and has put the hospital on stable financial footing with “an operating margin that exceeds industry standards.”
Strong patient satisfaction scores back up the high-level of care the hospital is providing, Hardy said.
Board Has Full Confidence
In response to the no-confidence vote, the hospital’s nine-member Board of Trustees conducted a “full and fair examination of assertions made by some medical staff members,” according to a March 3 statement.
“All nine of us have been involved in dozens of communications with independent, employed, retired or departed physicians, nurses and staff across the hospital system,” the statement said.
The board acknowledged some of the issues raised and said more attention would be directed toward recruitment and retention of doctors, “improving the culture surrounding safety and quality incident reporting” and making sure contractors meet patient care standards. But they did not see any reason to remove Thornell from his post.
“As already stated, we have concluded that Mr. Thornell has earned our full confidence,” Trustees said.
Obermueller said Thursday that Thornell is not just a great leader at Cheyenne Regional, but an active part of the community and a dedicated family man.
“He’s led the hospital through COVID and the response to COVID and the shifting ground of the political landscape related to health care,” Obermueller said.
Trustees believe increased communication could help bridge the differences between staff and leadership, and it’s something Obermueller said the hospital will work on.
According to minutes from the board’s Feb. 27 meeting, Obermueller said Thornell has kept quality metrics at the hospital consistently trending up. The board president praised Thornell for keeping the medical center financially strong.
“It has been pretty remarkable what Cheyenne Regional has accomplished in this time as one of only four to five hospitals in Wyoming to operate in the black, pushing through a global pandemic and its aftermath and requirements in a way that was not easy but ensured the hospital stayed economically viable as well as safe,” Obermueller said.
Cheyenne Regional Medical Center began as a tent hospital for Union Pacific Railroad workers in 1867. It celebrated its 150th year in 2017.
Justin George can be reached at justin@cowboystatedaily.com.
